On friday night, I visited my old neighborhood favorite bar, dalva. They've caught up with the current trend in visual stimulation - video projection.

Some bars will project onto a white wall, others have a screen. Sometimes it's visuals someone has edited and created on a computer, and sometimes it's old, weird movies; some kind of cool quotient is essential - tacky, classic, jungle documentary, etc. They mute the audio on the film and have the usual loud and Now music. Dalva had kung fu.



Skip to sunday night. Seth and I set an all-time record for the video store. In and out in FIVE MINUTES. With not one, but two movies.

I don't want to ruin it for you, but Open Water is really a downer. I can spare you the depressing journey and just tell you how it ends: Click here only if you want to know.

Martiniday

Friday is usually the day that Seth and I meet for martinis at Martunis after work. It's a piano bar full of eccentric types, mostly regulars. My favorite is an old chap named Herb. He sits in the same stool every time. Every Friday. Down the bar usually sits this tiny older woman who dyes her hair black and wears 50's reminiscent "outfits". She has old black cateye glasses and drinks white wine. She puts a cocktail napkin over her lipstick stained glass when she goes out to smoke.

Sadly, tonight we have other obligations, so the bar will be less two regulars.

Oh, the mall

No Smoking Ever Anywhere!

San Francisco passed a new law. While I'm against people leaving their cigarette butts in the grass and under benches, I don't know if banning smoking outside, when they already banned it inside, is the best planned use of our police force. And how are they going to inform tourists? More signs on the sides of buildings?

(click for story)

It's an overcast day in San Francisco. Last night it was a little stormy, so the streets and people are a little soggy, too. Right now I am inside that tall pink building. But you wouldn't know it from the outside, even with a high tech spy lens. I don't have a window.

last night

Late, and still no good choreography for dance class. How come some days there's just nothin' there?

Of course, the first thing i think is, "I need new music." Then I think, "If I were truly skilled, I could come up with something good to any music!" Then I think, "yeah, i should get some new music immediately."

Speaking of new music, there's this band called Smoosh in seattle that i discovered via KCRW this morning. their combined age is 22. click the pic to check out samples on amazon. personally, i like "Rad".

new tights, good.

new zits, bad!

weekend shoes

from around 21st and church.

I don't need to rub it in, but the concert was stellar. We were the third row standing from the front. I saw Mike's spit. He sang Janine. Gomez was rockin', and everyone around us knew the lyrics. Seth and I also debuted our "weekend shoes." He just got black dansko clogs, which look suspiciously like my red dansko clogs. It's not because we wanted to match, it's just because they're the most comfortable shoes in the whole wide world. But uh, we match.

Fridayyyy-uh

This will probably reveal me to be my usual forty steps behind pop culture. I just noticed that graffiti artists are putting their signatures on hello-my-name-is stickers and mailing labels to tag harder to reach places. cool.


Tonight is a night i've been looking forward to. Seth and I have tickets to see one of my favorite singers open for one of my favorite bands. Mike Doughty and Gomez, hot damn! Mom, remember that dance piece i did in college in blue coveralls where there were shopping carts in the back? The song was called "sleepless," and the piece was based on the choreographer living by a supermarket and waking up every time the carts were gathered from the parking lot. Anyway... the singer of that is Mike Doughty (technically Soul Coughing, but the band broke up). Today, he wrote in his blog, "I'm in San Francisco ('San Francisco--an oasis in the California desert!' opines George Sanders in All About Eve), opening for Gomez, who are fantastic, and their rollicking, woolly sound is beautifully suited to this chilly, mysterious town." I'm sort of involved in what you could call his online fan club, although we mostly talk about things other than him. That is how I met Jon and Teri.
teri is the other girl, there's jon on the right, and mike has the cash:

ANyway, I don't go to very many concerts, so this should be quite a fantastic field trip.

For mamala, flying frogs!

Contradiction, in three easy steps

Yesterday Maggie and I went to the movies together. Afterwards, I took myself out to dinner in Union Square. I had a manhattan, made friends with the bartender, an old smarty pants named Ken, and talked to a boisterous man on business from Washington, D.C. On my way out of the restaurant, i saw this sign and laughed out loud... pale pink suits say what?

but then i went to urban outfitters ...
1.

2.

3.


Hey, it could have been worse
--> [ ]

and just so you know, you can buy any of these



but you can't buy this

today is a better day

yesterday sucked, but today i'm feeling better rested and more with it. tonight i am starting my new solo! it's loosely about how we don't say what we're really thinking/feeling for fear that we'll sound stupid, weak, etc. but it's not about love.

sorry, kids. i tried really hard to say something interesting today. i didn't even take pictures of the birthday parties we went to this weekend.

shortmedium
long

same as it ever was

dear everybody,
i think it might be time to get a new hair cut. i think it's too long, and i think it's too the same hair cut i have had since college. i know, i know, it's great hair, but don't you think it would still be great if it were four inches shorter? or something? any suggestions?! discuss...

teri's new tattoo.

now that's one thing it's appropriate to be reminded of every day for the rest of your life.

4 bucks

and i'll eat it for days...

the weekend

more shots from backstage at the juice show. i have a funny story about one of my performances, but no time to tell it. a few more photos can be found here.


i took this photo to give you a sense of why perhaps it makes sense that my car window was smashed this weekend. that tan arch on the left is the entrance to the san francisco dance center. this is what we have to walk through. every day.


driving back from rehearsal in marin always gets the bad taste out of your mouth.

one more thing

bwah!

(guys, it's a bird)

finally got the software to put these three pics together.

Backstage at Jon Sims

last night was the technical rehearsal for a showcase i'm performing in tonight and tomorrow night. i choreographed a solo (mostly this week), which feels completely under-rehearsed, but i'm looking forward to seeing what happens when i get out there.

the best part about the jon sims center for the arts is its green room. pictured below are jenny and bronwyn, both modern dancers, and also the legs of indra, a bleach blonde who sings french cafe songs:



this is edward. he's the guy who tap dances at the cable car turnaround at union square. he dances to michael jackson in the show.
this girl is from philly. i told her i'd met some dancers in lithuania from philadelphia, and when i described one of the companies, she said, "oh, that's my dad's company." i remember talking to him that night in the smokey bar in kaunas.
view from the aisle of Kook Troupe rehearsing. modern dance + circus arts. one guy juggles, four girls act like zombie dolls, and one girl hangs from the ceiling.

and i just dance around for 3 minutes.

hey baby, what's your sign?

CorpAm

i swear four years ago i thought i'd never wear a lavender cardigan. so... soft... and appropriate. hey, at least i didn't wear the other half of the set.*


*omg, i own a sweater set

green day

i got a new sweater from ken for christmas! seth affectionately calls this color "jenni green." when i opened the package, i thought, "this reminds me of that sweater rachelle has!"


what are the chances we'd wear them on the same day?

oh five!

new year's eve. a little gathering at my place before hitting the town. we set up in the sitting area downstairs next to my room so we could use our fully stocked bar. (you can see it in the reflection of the mirror)


here's dawoud showing off his best bartender stance.


the rest of the night was literally barfy. how often do you see a pile of puke in a club? and how often do you see MORE THAN ONE? ew. but i'm glad i went out, and i'm glad i share the memory with some of my favorite people.